"O gin I be king Honour's son, "By Our Ladye I swear, "This night I will that traitor slay, "And relieve my mother dear!" He has set his bent bow to his breast, And leaped the castell wa'; And soon he has seized on Fause Foodrage, Wha loud for help 'gan ca'. "O haud your tongue, now, Fause Foodrage! "Frae me ye shanna flee." Syne pierc'd him thro' the fause fause heart, And set his mother free. And he has rewarded Wise William Wi' the best half of his land; And sae has he the turtle dow, Wi' the truth o' his right hand. NOTES ON FAUSE FOODRAGE. * * * * * _King Easter has courted her for her lands,_ _King Wester for her fee;_ _King Honour, &c._--P. 4. v. 1. King Easter and King Wester were probably the petty princes of Northumberland and Westmoreland. In the _Complaynt of Scotland_, an ancient romance is mentioned, under the title, "_How the king of Estmureland married the king's daughter of Westmureland_," which may possibly be the original of the beautiful legend of _King Estmere_, in the _Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_, Vol. I. p. 62 4th edit. From this it may be conjectured, with some degree of plausibility, that the independent kingdoms of the east and west coast were, at an early period, thus denominated, according to the Saxon mode of naming districts, from their relative positions; as Essex, Wessex, Sussex. But the geography of the metrical romances sets all system at defiance; and in some of these, as _Clariodus_ and _Meliades_, Estmureland undoubtedly signifies the land of the Easterlings, or the Flemish provinces at which vessels arrived in three days from England, and to which they are represented as exporting wool.--_Vide Notes on the Tale of Kempion._ On this subject I have, since publication of the first edition, been favoured with the following remarks by Mr Ritson, in opposition to the opinion above expressed:-- "Estmureland and Westmureland have no sort of relation to Northumberland and Westmoreland. The former was never called Eastmoreland, nor were there ever any kings of Westmoreland; unless we admit the authority of an old rhyme, cited by Usher:-- "Here the king Westmer "Slow the king Rothinger." "There is, likewise, a 'king Estmere, of Spain,' in one of Percy's ballads.